Each container on board a
container ship has a stowage position. Bay plan (stowage plan) is a diagram used
for stowage planning (ship loading). It shows the cross section of a ship, with
the stowage positions of each container.
A unique six digit number is
allocated for every such positions, eg:- 020584. This number indicates on which
Bay , on which Row at what height (tier) the container is positioned, 02 (Bay)/05(Row)/84(tier)
on board the ship.
The Bay
A bay on a ship can be
compared to a slice on a loaf of bread. Each bay is given a 2 digit number, 0dd
numbers (01,03,05..) for 20’ bays and even (02,04,06..) numbers for 40’ bays.
The number increases form bow to stern. The first 2 digits on the stowage position
indicates the bay and it identifies the position of the container (Lengthwise),
fore , mid and aft, on the ship.
The Row
The 3rd and 4th
digits on the stowage position indicate the row in which the container is
stowed. It identifies the position of the container left to right (width wise)
on the ship. Starting from centreline of the ship , rows to the right (starboard)
have odd numbers and rows to the left (port) have even numbers. For the ships
which have even number of rows in total (15,17,19..), the centre row is
numbered “00”.
The Tier (height)
The bay and row position
indicates whether the container is towards bow or stern and whether it is
positioned towards left (portside) or right (starboard side) on the ship. The tier indicates at what height the
container is stowed. Containers stacked at the bottom of ships are numbered 02,
which grows upwards 04,06,08.., in the under deck stack. Whereas numbering on
deck starts from 82 for containers stacked on the hatch cover and the numbers
grow upwards , 84,86,88…for on deck stacking.
So , stowage position 020584
indicates that the container is on a 40’ bay near the bow , 3rd row
towards right (starboard) , second tier on deck.
